Dubrovnik hotel

For the cancellation/refund you would have to check with the hotel. We have stayed in LAPAD, it is a bus ride to the Old City, not horrible. Taxis are inexpensive, you could go that route. On subsequent trips, we just stay within the walls. There is only one hotel within the walls, the Pucic Palace, which is quite expensive. There is a Hilton outside the Ploče Gate, just a 5 minute walk. I can recommend 2 places we have stayed at inside the walls, Apartment Pavisa and Andio Bed & Breakfast. We’ve stayed at Pavisa a few times (they have kitchenettes) and Andio only once (breakfast was included). Pavisa is in Rick’s book, both are on booking.Com. For our trip in September we are staying at a different place. The owner is a friend of my husband’s Aunt. It was always booked on previous trips. If it is too difficult to get a refund, the less expensive price should offset the price of taxis.

Lapad is completely fine, I stayed in an apartment there and travelled by bus into the Old town, only took about 15 minutes and one day i walked and took me 40 minutes.
Great area to stay in and has a lovely seaside resort feel to it.You can buy a Dubrovnik card for the lenth of your stay that will include several bus tickets usually 2 for each day of your card and for me it was a worthwhile investment
What place have you booked?

I now realize staying within the city walls would have made more sense.

You may be fine staying put. I stayed in the Lapad area after a RS tour and it was fine. I enjoyed a morning at the local beach and it was an easy bus ride into Dubrovnik. I was flying out of the Dubrovnik airport in the early morning and the taxi was able to come right to the hotel.

Thank you all
I feel much better know
God bless this travel forum

It also builds much good will for rick Steves tours !

JS
Happy trails to all

I’ll offer a different opinion. We stayed within the city walls and we loved it. I love being a part of the ebb and flow of where I am visiting. Waking up early and strolling the city before the tourist descend for the day is one of my great vacation joys. I could have spent a week exploring there and still not found every nook and cranny. We stayed at Rick Steve’s recommended Fresh Sheets. The location is perfect, right in the middle of everything. Our room, number 9 was quiet and comfortable and the owners go out of their way to make you feel welcome.

I have broken my foot ! So now I will be visiting Dubrovnik wearing a walking boot.
A hotel within the city walls seems important now.
Fresh sheets seems awesome but it has 3 flights of stairs
The Excelsior has an elevator but the cost is outrageous

Any recommendations for something in between ? A nice well located hotel with an elevator but more reasonably priced ?

Thanks all

So sorry about your foot. Something to think about… steps to and from the hotel to shops/restaurants in old town. While I agree Fresh with the flights stairs isn’t ideal just make sure if you book a ground floor accommodation that you don’t have multiple steps to go before you get to the front door from the main tourist area.

Dubrovnik has lots of steps. Perhaps you need to rethink your visit to the town entirely. The Strada, the main street is flat, and all passageways on the sea-side of the Strada are flat. Everything else has steps. It's about 60 steps to climb to the wall-walk, and the walk itself has a number of short (8-10 step) sections. To get to the cable car to go to the fortress, it's probably 75-80 steps.

You cannot avoid steps in old town. Old town houses usually have narrow staircases and no elevators so Lapad hotel is better option. Buses are frequent and all have low floors so no problem to get in and get off at all.

i would agree with the others regarding steps, the whole of the old town is steps apart from the main strada you will either be walking up or down steps all the time, even walking the walls you will be up and down all day long